Mathematical Modeling in Primary School: Students' Opinions and Suggestions on Modeling Activities Applied as a Teaching Experiment

Abstract

One of the main purposes of teaching mathematics is to enable students to solve real-life problems and relate mathematics to real-life situations. As a way of facilitating the teaching of mathematics, it should be applied in lessons with mathematical modeling activities of real life problems. The aim of this study is to determine the views of primary school 4th grade students who have experienced mathematical modeling activities for 9 weeks and their suggestions for future modeling activities.The participants of the study are 12 students selected by purposive sampling method among 69 students attending the 4th grade of a public school in Konya in the 2019/2020 academic year. As a result of the study, students; In addition to positive opinions such as increasing the interest of mathematical modeling activities in the lesson, increasing their success in mathematics lessons and improving their social skills, they also expressed negative opinions such as long questions, problems in group work and insufficient time.